07/24/2011 archive

The GOP and some of the blue dog Democrats would like to decimate the EPA and the Interior Department. They believe that carbon emissions are harmless, that fracking is safe and want to reduce clean water standards. They want to allow mining next to our precious nature preserves and water supplies, as well as, continued mountain top mining. A bill currently under consideration in the House has that has been aptly called “Pro-Pollution Omnibus Bill,” that contains an industry wish list of riders:

• allows uranium mining on federal lands adjacent to the Grand Canyon by lifting the moratorium on uranium mining along the Colorado River, potentially exposing 17 million people, dependent on the river for drinking water, to radioactive waste.

• stop new protections for animals at risk of extinction and their habitat. Clark says this could be “disastrous” for species like walruses, which are struggling to survive.

• prevent legal action to challenge Wyoming’s shoot-on-sight wolf plan.

• prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from doing more to protect waters and the wildlife and communities that depend on them. Pesticides are already a major threat to salmon, frogs and other wildlife.

• reduce grant programs that provide funding to states to protect declining and imperiled species and to other countries to protect migratory species that live in the United States during parts of the year.

• slash funding for national wildlife refuges, habitat restoration and other key conservation spending. The committee approved billions in spending cuts, which would damage already underfunded refuges and undercut environmental protection.

• paves the way for more mountain-top mining by blocking protections against toxic chemicals from mining waste running into our streams.

• protects BP and makes schools less safe by rejecting additional funding for the air toxic monitoring at schools or for the Deepwater Horizon litigation.

• allows thousands of pounds of pollutants into the air by exempting big oil companies like Shell, Exxon and BP from the Clean Air Act for any new drilling area outside the Gulf of Mexico

• increases the odds of another oil spill by rejecting requested funds for additional staff and funding for increased facility inspections on offshore drilling rigs.

• prohibits funding for the Wild Lands Secretarial Order, which Republicans say would negatively impact ranching, energy production, recreation, and other activities on public lands. A similar measure passed the House in the FY 2011 continuing budget resolution.

• prohibits funding for the EPA to regulate levels of particulate matter in the air, including farm dust, under the Clean Air Act.

• prohibits funding for the EPA to develop additional financial assurance requirements for hard rock mining operations.

• prohibits states from receiving EPA Great Lakes funding if they have adopted ballast water requirements that are more stringent than federal requirements.

• directs the EPA to do a cumulative assessment of the impacts of EPA regulations.

• prohibits funding for the Utility Maximum Achievable Control Technology rule and the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, also called the “Transport” rule, which both require power plants to limit toxic air emissions. Both rules respond to court orders.

The GOP claims that they want to cut spending and end regulations to create jobs. There will be no jobs if they continue with policies that destroy the environment and kill our home, Earth.

h/t to Edger who asked that we use the video liberally.

The last couple of weeks Cenk Uygur, a liberal, outspoken commentator, has been missing from the 6 PM program he had been regularly hosting on MSNBC.

Cenk Uygur (host of The Young Turks) explains why he turned down a new, significantly larger MSNBC contract after hosting a prime-time show on the network that was beating CNN in the key demo ratings. He also shares his thoughts on Rachel Maddow and Fox News.

What Jane Hamsher at FDL Action said:

I have, and always have had, tremendous respect for Cenk Uygur. His contract with his audience is that he will never put himself in a position where he cannot say what he really thinks.  And in turning down MSNBC’s offer to host a weekend show so he could give his audience a fair appraisal of what happened, he honors that contract.

What Glenn Greenwald at Salon said:

(But as) Uygur’s stories make clear, MSNBC very much considers itself “part of the establishment” and demands that its on-air personalities reflect that status.  With some exceptions, MSNBC largely fits comfortably in the standard, daily Republicans v. Democrats theatrical conflicts, usually from the perspective that the former is bad and the latter are good.  It’s liberal — certainly more liberal than other establishment media outlets have been in the past — but it’s establishment liberalism, and that’s allowed.  It’s wandering too far afield from that framework, being too hostile to the system of political and financial power itself, that is frowned upon.  

President Obama’s Chief of Staff Bill Daley, former bankster and Third Way board member, thinks that it is “the deficit is a serious drag on the economy.” You would think that the Tea Party Republicans had taken over the White House. Oh, wait, they have.

Mr. Daley appeared on Meet the Press with corporate shill, David Gregory

As Scarecrow at FDL points out

Apparently, the man closest to the President of the United States, and on whom the President relies for political and economy advice, does not know that the only reason the terrible unemployment numbers that may end his President’s re-election hopes are at 9.2 percent and not 11 or 12 percent or higher is because of the increased federal deficit spending of the last two years.

And the only thing that can keep unemployment from reaching higher levels in 2012 is continued federal spending, which they will cover via more deficits. If Mr. Daley’s diagnosis were translated into policy – and that seems to be what’s happening – he and his President will need new jobs in 2013.

Mr. Daley and the completely useless David Gregory totally ignore the real causes for current economic disaster:

On the debt reduction negotiations, David Gregory asked Mr. Daley what he must have thought was a gotcha now question. He showed Mr. Daley a graphic showing the increase in the total debt since Obama took office, with the debt going from $10 trillion to $14 trillion or so, and projected to rise another $2 trillion.

Then Gregory smuggly concluded, “can’t you [Mr. Daley] see the logic of those who argue that given this huge increase in the debt, it makes sense that we reduce that only with spending cuts and not tax increases?”

The correct response to a question that jaw-droppingly stupid would have been to award Gregory the Douglas Feith Award and terminate his contract with NBC. Daley may not get the allusion and couldn’t say that in any event.

But in responding, Daley couldn’t even remember to remind viewers that the bulk of that debt increase was entirely the result of the recession: fallen tax revenues and increased safety-net spending, plus the stimulus, all responding to the recession Mr. Obama inherited. Instead, he left us with the lecture on how the debt or deficit was a serious drag on the economy, so our President was really focused on that.

Scarecrow is so right that “there are no more adults in this conversation.”

 

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

Click on images to enlarge

July 24 is the 205th day of the year (206th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 160 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day, one hundred years ago, in 1911, Machu Picchu discovered

American archeologist Hiram Bingham gets his first look at Machu Picchu, an ancient Inca settlement in Peru that is now one of the world’s top tourist destinations.

Tucked away in the rocky countryside northwest of Cuzco, Machu Picchu is believed to have been a summer retreat for Inca leaders, whose civilization was virtually wiped out by Spanish invaders in the 16th century. For hundreds of years afterwards, its existence was a secret known only to the peasants living in the region. That all changed in the summer of 1911, when Bingham arrived with a small team of explorers to search for the famous “lost” cities of the Incas.

Traveling on foot and by mule, Bingham and his team made their way from Cuzco into the Urubamba Valley, where a local farmer told them of some ruins located at the top of a nearby mountain. The farmer called the mountain Machu Picchu, which meant “Old Peak” in the native Quechua language. The next day–July 24–after a tough climb to the mountain’s ridge in cold and drizzly weather, Bingham met a small group of peasants who showed him the rest of the way. Led by an 11-year-old boy, Bingham got his first glimpse of the intricate network of stone terraces marking the entrance to Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu was built around 1450, at the height of the Inca Empire. It was abandoned just over 100 years later, in 1572, as a belated result of the Spanish Conquest. It is possible that most of its inhabitants died from smallpox introduced by travelers before the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the area. The latter had notes of a place called Piccho, although there is no record of the Spanish having visited the remote city. The types of sacred rocks defaced by the conquistadors in other locations are untouched at Machu Picchu.

Hiram Bingham theorized that the complex was the traditional birthplace of the Incan “Virgins of the Suns”. More recent research by scholars such as John Howland Rowe and Richard Burger, has convinced most archaeologists that Machu Picchu was an estate of the Inca emperor Pachacuti. In addition, Johan Reinhard presented evidence that the site was selected because of its position relative to sacred landscape features such as its mountains, which are purported to be in alignment with key astronomical events important to the Incas.

Johan Reinhard believes Machu Picchu to be a sacred religious site. This theory stands mainly because of where Machu Picchu is located. Reinhard calls it “sacred geography” because the site is built on and around mountains that hold high religious importance in the Inca culture and in the previous culture that occupied the land. At the highest point of the mountain in which Machu Picchu was named after, there are “artificial platforms [and] these had a religious function, as is clear from the Inca ritual offerings found buried under them” (Reinhard 2007). These platforms also are found in other Incan religious sites. The site’s other stone structures have finely worked stones with niches and, from what the “Spaniards wrote about Inca sites, we know that these (types of) building(s) were of ritual significance” (Reinhard 2007). This would be the most convincing evidence that Reinhard points out because this type of stylistic stonework is only found at the religious sites so it would be natural that they would exist at this religious site. Another theory maintains that Machu Picchu was an Inca llaqta, a settlement built to control the economy of conquered regions. Yet another asserts that it may have been built as a prison for a select few who had committed heinous crimes against Inca society. An alternative theory is that it is an agricultural testing station. Different types of crops could be tested in the many different micro-climates afforded by the location and the terraces; these were not large enough to grow food on a large scale, but may have been used to determine what could grow where. Another theory suggests that the city was built as an abode for the deities, or for the coronation of kings

Although the citadel is located only about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Cusco, the Inca capital, the Spanish never found it and consequently did not plunder or destroy it, as they did many other sites. Over the centuries, the surrounding jungle grew over much of the site, and few outsiders knew of its existence.

• Wiki Nurburgring
• Nurburgring for Dummies

After Nikki Lauda died in 1976 they pretty much bulldozed the Südschleife and built a new 2.8 mile track that was used today.  Any ordinary person who happens to find themselves in the area can purchase a ticket and drive the Northern Ring which is pretty remarkable when you think about it.

As of yesterday they were predicting rain, rain, and more rain although the 6 am ET GP2 race took place in the dry (though it was threatening).

I’ve heard no more interesting rumors about phone hacking even though the irony of having this covered on Fox is appealing.  This is the last race that will be tape delayed this season which has drawn a surprisingly strong reaction from my readers.

Of course what’s surprising to me is that I have any readers at all.

I plead both distraction and fatigue for the brevity of my introduction and I’m afraid I can’t promise any better for next week’s Hungaroring when with any luck at all I’ll have a chance to visit my doggie friend and his owner too.

While there might be pretty tables below all that they’ll show is continued Red Bull dominance with Scuderia Marlboro UPC improvement and Renault decline relative to Mercedes.  Everyone else is an also ran even though the season is but half complete.

However wet has the potential to mix things up and Hamilton for one has opined he wouldn’t mind if they ran every race in the damp from now on.

Pretty tables will wait.  I think commentary is more important.

• F1: Nurburgring Qualifying
• Formula One Official Site

Dictatorship.  Enabling Act.

These terms are not too strong to use in response to the latest obscenity being floated by the Billionaire Bootlicking Beltway Versailles Villager Idiot Evil Elite.

Evil ek?

The proposal “on the table” for a joint bi-partisan “Super Committee” is nothing less than taking away your right to vote.

It doesn’t get any more fundamentally evil than that.

Taking away our right to vote?

Elections have consequences, for now.  If your party loses you lose Committee Chairmanships, Members, and Votes.  You lose your ability to advance your agenda whether it be progressive or radically reactionary.  “More and Better”?  Under this proposal you could have a “Democratic” Super Majority of 80% and the Rump Republican Teabagger Twenty Percent would have equal representation, equal influence, and no majority however large elected by the people regardless of the margin of victory would be able to stop them.

Of course as we have seen no super majority is enough for the cowardly “Democratic” Party and their leader, Barack Obama.

Teddy Partridge is not wrong to compare it with the fall of the Roman Republic-

One phase critical to undermine democracy and set citizens’ constitutional protections aside is when The Owners replace the people’s elected representatives (proven dysfunctional through a series of invented ’emergencies’) with a super-governing body of Owners’ Overseers to decide what’s best for everyone.

…

Stripping the people’s elected representatives of their constitutional right to legislate is a crucial step in ensuring that messy democratic principles no longer interfere in the upward escalator of wealth.

This is nothing new, of course: when Caesar crossed the Rubicon he effectively implemented imperium within Rome, something previously prohibited for generals serving in the territories and provinces ruled by the imperium but outside Rome. A general ‘crossing the Rubicon’ was seen to be subverting the people’s elected representatives with military might under his command. It hadn’t happened until Caesar did it.

But things were going so badly in Rome on January 10th, 49BC! No one remembers exactly what was going quite so wrong, anymore; we only remember that representative Roman democracy ended that day.

Only one question remains for our current Old Congress: will they flee in fear and with their dignity intact as the people’s representatives, as did Pompey and the elected Roman pro-consuls and Senators? Because it seems, observers, that if Ryan Grim’s Super Congress reporting is true, alea iacta est : the die is cast.

This is why there is a United States.  Our Founders fought a war for freedom from exactly this kind of tyranny.  Our “Greatest Generation” died in droves on the Normandy beachheads and around the world to prevent exactly this kind of corporate fascism.

If you will stand by and let tyrants take your liberty you are a Quisling, a Benedict Arnold who had at least the excuse of poor treatment and did great things in service of country before turning traitor.

Créteil to Paris Champs-Élysées 59 miles

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Le sigh.

When an event like this finishes I’m immediately overcome with nostalgia because while it requires a certain amount of energy and discipline to persist, by the end of it your efficiency at the task is improved and you are inured and habituated to the inconvenience.

The absence persists as a phantom limb and the possibility of a next time seems unimaginably distant.

I’m not a particularly good prognosticator but I take solace in the fact most others aren’t either.  Before the race I didn’t even know who Cadel Evans was and like Armando and Jada Yuan thought this would be a duel between the Schlecks and Contador.  Hushovd and Voeckler were surprisingly strong performers and I knew it was over for Contador when he passed attacking on the Pyrenees where his advantages were strongest.  In the Pyrenees the crowds were rooting for the Spaniard, in the Alps they were chanting “Doper.  Doper.”

I’d call yesterday’s Time Trial by the Schlecks disappointing except that it wasn’t really.  Cadel Evans had an extraordinary performance, finishing 55:40 only 7 Seconds in 2nd to Tony Martin who set a blistering pace.  Contador finished 3rd but nowhere near the time he needed to erode the Schlecks’ lead.

This last Stage is a parade so these standings won’t change-

I’m including 11th and 12th places because those are the positions of Pierre Rolland who clinched the White Jersey of the Young Riders champion and Rein Taaramae the runner up.

Remaining to be contested is the Green Jersey of the Sprint champion.  It seems highly likely that it will be Cavendish, Rojas, and Gilbert in that order.  Fourth will be Cadel Evans and it’s interesting to contemplate that if he were behind in the General Classification and a little closer to the lead in the points whether the customs of Le Tour would allow him to put on a move and ‘steal’ the maillot jaune.

Sportsmanship isn’t what it used to be and as Jada reports–

Both the public and Tour organizers have been very vocal about wanting the Tour to get more exciting.

Last year’s Tour featured giant pileups seemingly each of the first ten days, and the bruised and bloodied riders slowed down the pace of the peloton several times to allow fallen riders to catch up. That’s wonderful and sportsmanlike, but doesn’t really make for a good race. With considerable market pressure on the Tour from the fast-gaining-in-reputation Giro d’Italia, officials hope the riders are a little more selfish this year. Race director Christian Prudhomme has also said that he wished Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador had attacked each other more last year, which one assumes he hopes they take as a challenge.

Of course that was the year of the 39 Second Chain which may be avenged in the Court of Arbitration for Sports on August 2nd.

So your final 2011 Vs. coverage starts at 8 am.  In the commentators prediction competition only Paul improved his position yesterday and he’s mathematically out so unless they pick again today (and they might, there is that final sprint) Phil is the wire to wire winner.

• Jada Yuan Previews the Hell Out of the Tour de France in the New Yorker, 7/1/11 at 2:00 PM
• Le Tour 2011 official site
• Your The Stars Hollow Gazette Le Tour coverage tags-
• Le Tour
• Le Tour 2010
• Le Tour 2011

Cops: Norway gunman claims he acted alone

92 died in Friday attacks by anti-immigration zealot

msnbc.com staff and news service reports

A right-wing zealot who admitted to bomb and gun attacks in Norway that killed 92 people on Friday claims he acted alone, Norway’s police said on Sunday.

“He has admitted to the facts of both the bombing and the shooting, although he’s not admitting criminal guilt,” acting police chief Sveinung Sponheim told a news conference about detained suspect Anders Behring Breivik.

“He says that he was alone but the police must verify everything that he said. Some of the witness statements from the island (shootings) have made us unsure of whether there was one or more shooters.”

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

The Sunday Talking Heads:

This Week with Christiane Amanpour: Guests will include Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Former Senate leaders Trent Lott    (R-MI), Tom Daschle (D-SD) and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined by City Hall aides Jonathan Mintz and John Feinblatt, whose marriage ceremony he will officiate this Sunday.

The roundable guests, ABC News’ George Will, Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post, Fox Business Network senior correspondent Charlie Gasparino, and economist Alice Rivlin, former member of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, will discuss the debt ceiling crisis and Rep. Michelle Bachmann‘s migraines heh, hers or ours.

ABC News correspondent Lama Hasan reports on the devastating drought and famine in the Horn of Africa.

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Mr. Schieffer’s guests White House Chief of Staff William Daley and key negotiators Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), plus Gang of Six leaders Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA).

Liars one and all

The Chris Matthews Show: This week’s guests, Kelly O’Donnell, NBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent, John Heilemann, New York Magazine National Political Correspondent, Joe Klein, TIME Columnist and Gloria Borger, CNN Senior Political Analyst, will babble about these topics:

The Anatomy Of A 2012 Obama Reelection Plan

Can Obama Run On Hope And Still Look Credible?

Meet the Press with David Gregory: Guests this week are White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, “Gang of Six” member Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK).

The roudtable panel, Former Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE), tea party freshman Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), Mayor of Newark, Cory Booker (D), Presidential Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and NBC’s Andrea Mitchell will be asked if Washington is Broken.

answer: YES

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) and GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty are guests.

Fareed Zakaris: GPS: Guests are Pulitzer Prize winning author David McCullough, Anne-Marie Slaughter and Gideon Rose.